The present invention is directed to the art of unloading a silo, and particularly to a silo unloader of the bottom unloading type, wherein silage is conveyed to a central opening in the silo floor, to drop down a chute from that opening, into a zone beneath the silo floor, and then to be delivered from that zone to a point outside the silo, by means of an exit auger. Similar devices have been developed in the past, such as are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,095,703 and 4,057,151. Such devices generally work very well, and are particularly advantageous for silos of wider diameters, where it is desirable to effect the advancing of the auger across the floor, by engaging the auger at a point remote from the center of the silo, in order to provide the necessary forces for pushing the auger into silage that is accumulated remote distances from the center of the silo.
The present invention is directed principally to those silo unloaders of the bottom unloader types, in which the silos are generally smaller in diameter and consequently the resistance that the auger meets upon being advanced forward across the floor of a silo, is necessarily less than with silos of larger diameters. Consequently, the drive for advancing the auger across the floor may take place at a more central location, and still achieve the necessary forces for driving the auger into silage.
To this end, the present invention is addressed to driving the auger, in its sweeping motion, through a generally centrally located auger mount.